On April 18, 1977, author Alex Haley was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Blending oral history, archival research, and novelistic storytelling, Roots traced Haley’s ancestry back to Kunta Kinte, an African man kidnapped and enslaved in 18th-century America. The book ignited national conversations about African American genealogy, identity, and historical trauma. Its success led to an Emmy-winning television miniseries viewed by over 130 million people—making it one of the most impactful works of historical fiction in U.S. history. Haley’s Pulitzer marked a defining moment in Black literature and cultural representation.
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